Burial ground

The National Monuments Service's description

Marked as 'Graves' on three small enclosures only on the 1840 ed. of the OS 6-inch map, and situated in the sand dunes at the edge of Tramore Strand. This is the burial place of some of the victims of the Sea Horse disaster, but there is no evidence of the burials.
In January 1816 a ship of 350 tons called the Sea Horse, under the command of Capt. Gibbs, was heading for Kinsale when it had to run before a severe SW gale. The ship was transporting troops of the 2nd Battalion of the 59th Regiment of Foot. Although it was heading for the estuary of the Barrow/Suir, it had to shelter in the lee of Newtown Head, having lost much of its rigging. Its two anchors could not hold it and c. 12 noon on the 30th Jan. it beached c. 1km to sea around the centre of the Back Strand. Despite the exertions of a local crowd on the shore 363 of the 396 lives on borad were lost. Some were buried in Drumcannon graveyard (WA026-017002-), others in the Church of Ireland church at Tramore, but it must be presumed that most were buried where they washed ashore. In 1823 Lloyd's insurers erected the Metal Man on one of three columns on Newtown Head, and two columns on Brownstown Head as aids to navigators. (Higgins 1908-10)

Higgins, P. (ed.) (1908-10) Narrative of the loss of the “Sea-horse” transport, (Captain Gibbs) in the Bay of Tramore, on the 30th January, 1816. WAJ vol. 11, 116-125; vol. 13, 23-5;

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload: 27 May 2011